It's B.D. Wong's birthday. Wong has played many roles, but is known in these circles Minister Zhi Zhang, aka Whiterose, in the cyber series, Mr. Robot. Wong turns 61 today.
On this day in 2005, civil-rights activist Rosa Parks died of natural causes in her Detroit apartment at age 92. Impermanence is swift.
As you probably know by now, the Boston Red Sox lost Game 6 of the ALCS and will not go on to the World Series this year. Their season is over. Impermanence is, well, you get it. Instead, the Houston Astros (boo!) will face the Smyrna Braves (boo!) in the World Series.
Now, I may have already given my argument away, but I refuse to call them the Atlanta Braves because they turned their backs on the City of Atlanta and moved out to the lily-white suburb of Smyrna, Georgia in 2017. Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, too focused on making a sweetheart deal with the Atlanta Falcons for a new, taxpayer-funded football stadium, let the Braves skip out of town without so much as a counter-offer.
I've always been a die-hard Red Sox fan, but I so enjoy urban life and identification with a big city, that I had season tickets to the Braves from 1994 through 1998. I had Pittsburgh Pirates series tickets the year (1993) that I lived there. But I cheered the Braves on from the stands at their home playoff and World Series games during those years; fortunately for me, the Red Sox weren't their opponent for any of those seasons. I eventually got discouraged that for all their opportunities and all of their talent, including arguably the best-ever pitching rotation in the game (Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz, etc.), they only managed to win one World Series title, but I wasn't inclined to turn my back on them altogether.
That is, until they turned their back on me and on Atlanta and moved out to Cobb County, a white Republican stronghold. "It's easier to get to the game now," they proclaimed, which may be true for fans out in the distant suburbs and exurbs, but shows that they didn't consider us urban folks living in the City as their fan base. Besides, coming into the Big City for a baseball game, taking public transportation, and experiencing different people with different lifestyles is a formative educational experience for both the young and old alike. It helps people bind with the City, but the Braves move out to the suburbs only serves to increase the existing partisan divide between urban and rural Georgia, and increase the social and political alienation. "You shouldn't have to go into that dirty old town just to enjoy a baseball game" is the implied message.
I grew up on Long Island, at the time (1960s) a predominantly white, Republican area demographically, not unlike Cobb County today. I don't recall a single child of color in any of my elementary school classes. But going into The Bronx for a Yankees game exposed me for the first time to City life, to predominantly black neighborhoods and crowds, and to a different lifestyle than I had experienced out in the 'burbs. It was eye-opening, and as I grew into my teens I enjoyed trips into the City without adult supervision, and as a grown man I've always preferred to live in an urban setting, be it Boston, Atlanta, or Pittsburgh. My years in small-town Albany, New York (1986-1992) were among the most depressing in my life.
Today, folks out in the Atlanta suburbs pack their kids into their SUV, drive to another suburb, park in the appointed decks and lots, walk through the amusement-park themed development around the stadium, and then return to their suburban homes without so much as a taste of the City the team is named for.
I couldn't be more disappointed, and I can only wish the Smyrna Braves a rapid defeat at the hands of the Houston Astros, another team I despise but for whole other reasons I won't get into now.
Former Mayor Kasim Reed, who let the Braves leave town, left office in disgrace himself, riddled with charges of corruption and under criminal investigation. He eventually got cleared of charges, although many in his administration did not, and is running for Mayor again. Polling shows he is statistically tied with Atlanta City Council President Felicia Moore in a crowded slate of candidates. Not only because of the Braves but for all of the corruption around him, when I mailed in my ballot on Friday, it did not choose Reed for Mayor. I won't forget and I'll vote with my conscience. I voted for Moore because she's more than qualified and is the one candidate who can defeat Reed.
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